Updated Genre Development

Written by Liam Potter

And Thomas Powers

 

Genre ideas for short film.

The genre selected is Action. This means that we still need to decide on a sub-genre.
Typical action sub genres include;

• Action Spy
• Action Adventure
• Action Horror
• Action Disaster
• Action Sci-Fi
• Action Comedy

Because of numerous subgenres, action can easily be incorporated into a short film and can be adapted to fit into a film.

 

An action spy film can be seen in James Bond. Because the action spy genre can be easily adapted, action spy films can have many different forms and interpretations. for example Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids.

 

 

Action Horror is another easily adaptable genre because it can be interpreted in different ways. This means it's great for doing a short film because it is such a flexible sub-genre. Examples of this include Resident Evil (2002 Paul W. S. Anderson).

We decided to film an action Thriller; this means we have to follow the standard conventions of an action Thriller. In terms of editing this means fast paced editing featuring many consecutive cuts in rapid succession, the editing can at times change the mood of the settings by jumping rapidly through scenes.  The editing is one of the key areas because it can rapidly change the feeling of the overall film.

The cinematography featured is usually a mixture of close-ups with a rapid changes to mid shots, this means that the audience feel trapped or compressed, it also gives a tighter feeling to the overall footage, this tighter feeling adds to the emotional intensity of the scene and can make an audiences emotional reaction stronger.

The Mise-en-scene is usually very dark with little to no colour featured, this draws attention away from backgrounds and draws the attention towards the audience, this means that when colour is present it draws the audience’s attention to the object within the frame. The Lighting in a thriller can either be dark and dingy with either a small artificial light or natural lighting, or it can be bright and harsh and contrast the actions within the scene. We will be using this to make sure that we can have a stark contrast from the dark action occurring to the bright sunshine pouring in through the windows.

The sound is always quite blunt and sharp, the sound has a lasting effect on a scene, depending on what type of soundtrack is used the overall feel of the scene can dramatically change from dark and mysterious to bright and happy, however the sound can sometimes mis-match the action occurring to create a larger contrast and darken the scene further. A good example of this would be Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992) in which a character is being tortured to the extremes of having his ear removed, this in stark contrast to the music playing which is Stuck In The Middle With you.